Identifying atomic customer needs that drive growth
Jeff Bezos said, “Is there ever a day when someone says they want fewer options, slower delivery, and higher prices?” By asking that question, he defined the atomic-level needs of Amazon customers. What I mean by “atomic-level” is this: The needs are so deeply ingrained into the customer that they will exist today, tomorrow, next […]
by Bill Carr
Focus on inputs, not stock price for long-term growth
About once a year, Jeff Bezos would spend a few minutes discussing Amazon’s stock price with the entire company at one of our quarterly All-Hands Meetings. It went something like this: “You may have all noticed that our stock price has gone up about 30% over the last month. While this is great, I would […]
by Bill Carr
How Amazon instruments data collection for business reviews
Amazon’s main control processes are S-Team Goal Reviews, QBRs, MBRs, and WBRs. But before any of these reviews can take place, the data to be reviewed must be properly collected. Here is how Amazon instruments this data collection: First, imagine you run a small, single-person business. You do not need lots of instrumentation to understand […]
by Bill Carr
How Amazon sets clear, actionable goals with no hierarchy
Amazon does not use OKRs or KPIs. Instead, Amazon uses a simple, flat list of goals with no hierarchy. Each goal has a single owner and objective pass/fail criteria. Here is how this approach works so well for Amazon: Amazon’s goal-setting process is simple. Every year, through the OP-1 planning cycle, teams generate a list […]
by Bill Carr
How Amazon uses the five whys for operational excellence
When I joined Amazon in 1999, our software and fulfillment network was swamped by the growth in demand. We were barely surviving. We couldn’t be operationally excellent until we dug ourselves out of that hole and built systems and processes to meet the demand. Fast forward two decades, and Amazon is an example of Operational […]
by Bill Carr
Using customer stories and input metrics to improve experience
At Amazon, one of the most impactful weekly moments was when, in addition to diving deep on our metrics, we also reviewed anecdotes. In each WBR, our customer support team shared an example of a poor customer experience from the prior week. These were technically edge or corner cases, but they were emotionally resonant cases […]
by Bill Carr
Leadership lessons from Bill Gates on complex problem analysis
Today I read the controversial blog post in which Bill Gates argues for a different approach to managing climate change. In short, he argues that addressing and managing climate change remains an important issue, but funding efforts to do so should be secondary to funding efforts to reduce poverty and disease. My post is neither […]
by Bill Carr
Understanding Amazon’s complex retail operation and supply chain
The complexity of Amazon’s retail operation is staggering. Amazon sells ~600 million items, which flow through 175 fulfillment centers (FCs) and ship to pretty much anywhere on Earth. We enabled this with one part customer obsession and two parts operational excellence. When you place an order on Amazon, you initiate a complex set of automated […]
by Bill Carr
Balancing low prices and profitability through operational excellence
Low prices are a critical input to Amazon’s growth flywheel. But it’s one thing to say you care about low prices; it’s another to deliver low prices when you are losing money. Keeping prices low was a constant challenge. One way we struggled was that our brick-and-mortar competitors, like Walmart, rely on a loss-leader strategy. […]
by Bill Carr
Measuring customer experience through meaningful input metrics
Companies can convince themselves that they’re “customer-centric” by talking about it and giving motivational speeches. But they fail because they don’t back their words with action and mechanisms. It is just wishful thinking. Being customer-centric means defining, measuring, and analyzing metrics that reflect the customer experience. This means measuring the speed, cost, and quality of […]
by Bill Carr